Warden's Stand
by TM Vanguard
Summary: Dwarven Grey Warden, Trian Rumote, is recently promoted to Warden Commander and given charge of the fortress, The Lion's Tooth. It is discovered that the darkspawn are gathering to attack the keep and slaughter every Grey Warden in sight. Trian must gather his allies to defend the massive fortress, and place his name down in Warden history.


Prologue

"More on the left!" Shouted one of the ensigns, raising his shield to block the advance of the hurlock he was fighting. "In war, victory! In peace-" The oath was cut short by the arrow piercing his heart, fired from the bow of a genlock archer.

Our camp was attacked at dawn. A large hit and run squad of darkspawn came down on us before we even knew what was happening. My corpse would be at the end of a darkspawn pike if I didn't sleep with my battleaxe within reach.

"Don't give these bastards a damned inch!" I shouted to my remaining wardens. Our line was strong, even though we were all tired and weary. But we knew that survival meant pushing through, even though we did suffer casualties.

My name is Trian Rumote, senior Grey Warden and commanding officer of this scouting mission.

I gripped my battleaxe tighter, ready to cut down anything that tried to attack me or my men.

I raised the head of my weapon high, bringing it down onto the shoulder blade of a charging genlock, severing it's arm in the process, then struck my pommel in his face, knocking him to the ground, no longer a threat.

My second in command, Darren Ashton, a charismatic former mercenary, was fighting at my back, taking out any darkspawn that got near my flank.

"I don't suppose that if we keep killing them they'll run out some time soon?!" He was one of the best I'd ever seen with two weapons: he'd block the attack of his enemy with his sword, slice their wrist with his dagger, then swipe his sword at their chest.

"Everyone, rally on me!" I barked at the top of my lungs, drawing all the remaining wardens to me. "Form a circle and keep your shields up! They get too close then run them through!"

This was a strategy I learned from my time in Orzammar's warrior caste, the only disadvantage was that our front line had spears then, not just swords.

But it was working. Whenever the darkspawn would get too close, the line would throw them back with their shields, then strike at them with their weapons.

Then, a rumble from the woods. A tremor shook the ground, but not a continuous shaking, these were rhythmic. Like footsteps.

The ogre tore through the trees to us in the clearing, rearing for a thundering roar as soon as it was visible.

"Oh, Maker I don't want to die!" One of the men in the circle, a young recruit, dropped his shield and sword and ran towards the woods. A genlck took the opportunity to shoot him in the neck with his crossbow.

"Damn it, stay in formation! Fill the gap!" The circle moved back to fill the space the recruit left, all their swords now pointed towards the massive ogre.

The huge beast planted it's feet into the ground and lowered it's head, ready to charge.

It shot forward, breaking up our circle of defence and forcing us to split up, as well as crushing a recruit who didn't get out of the way in time.

"Get rid of the support, this bastard's mine!" I ordered to my men. This wasn't the first ogre I had fought. The first was only a few months after I joined the wardens, we lost half of our squad but we had put enough arrows in it to weaken it for our warriors to finish off.

Darren sprinted towards it, slicing at it's legs and distracting it, dodging it's attacks with his speed and dexterity, which got me the perfect opportunity to run as fast as I could at it, with my battleaxe in tow.

By the time it saw me, I had already leapt into the air, bringing the head of my weapon into it's skull, cutting through to it's brain and bringing the creature down.

The rest of the darkspawn squad retreated after their main offensive was brought to the ground, realising that they had been defeated.

The remainder of us gathered at what was left of our camp, to count losses and regroup. We had lost a total of 7 wardens out of 20, 5 recruits and 2 ensigns. We loaded the bodies onto the one wagon that wasn't destroyed during the chaos, and headed back to the fortress.


End file.
